Sony Corp sees the smartphone business as indispensable to its brand portfolio, its CEO said, bucking calls from some investors that the Japanese electronics firm should scrap the money-losing business. Sony's consumer electronics hardware business "has centred on entertainment since our foundation, not daily necessities like refrigerators and washing machines," Kenichiro Yoshida told a group of journalists on Wednesday. The business, originally a joint venture with Sweden's Ericsson that Sony took full control of in 2012, has a global market share of less than 1%, shipping just 6.5 million handsets annually, mainly to Japan and Europe, according to Sony's financial statement.

Yoshida, who took the helm a little over a year ago, addressed shareholders at the company’s investor day on Tuesday at Sony’s headquarters in Tokyo. The beefier device is designed to help PS4 users switch easily, Yoshida said.The new device will come with remote play, which lets users play console games from their phones, tablets and PCs.

Perhaps no one was more shocked than employees of Sony’s PlayStation division, who have spent almost two decades fighting the U.S. software giant in the $38 billion video game console market. Last week, the companies announced a strategic partnership to co-develop game streaming technology and host some of PlayStation’s online services on the Redmond-based company’s Azure cloud platform. It comes after PlayStation spent seven years developing its own cloud gaming offering, with limited success.

"For many years, Microsoft has been a key business partner for us, though of course the two companies have also been competing in some areas," Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida said in a statement. "I believe that our joint development of future cloud solutions will contribute greatly to the advancement of interactive content." Sony shares jumped nearly 11 percent as Asian markets opened. Microsoft's stock closed up 2 percent on Thursday.

The Tokyo-based company soared as much as 8.8% on Friday after announcing it will purchase as much as 4.8% of its outstanding shares, spending up to 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion). Yoshida’s move underscores a commitment to supporting the stock price as Sony became the latest Japanese company to announce a buyback of at least $1 billion. Escalating tensions between the U.S. and China now also cloud the global economic outlook.

While the companies have worked together in some parts of their businesses, Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox compete fiercely, particularly for the attention of hard-core gamers. At the same time, as both companies face rivals such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., Sony will want cloud horsepower to run its services.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp said on Thursday it would buy back shares worth up to 200 billion yen (1.4 billion pounds), or 4.8% of stock, through March 31, 2020, in an effort to boost shareholder returns.

Why These Two Analysts Raised Their Price Targets on Disney(Continued from Prior Part)Disney’s revenues from studio business Walt Disney (DIS) reported a 27% YoY decline in studio revenues, while it posted a 63% YoY fall in operating income in the